Yeah sure, in the beginning the misses said also to me not to so it, and its too much. But now sometimes some crowds are standing in front of the door and she is a little proud, not that she will admit but the resistance tense to breakdown😉
Next year there even will be singing faces😆. Just do it and let other people convince your fellow occupants.
Hello docmattman,
Really interest in your project, I live in the Netherlands and also started with installing permanent lights to my house connected with WLED. I have three strings mounted to my house (still installing). Two of 450 LEDs and one of 300 LEDs. Each string is connected to a NodeMCU ESP8266.
Next christmas i also want to make the mega tree. Could you please explain to me which materials you used? I looked at Aliexpress at the Ray wu’s store but it cost a fortune to ship it to the Netherlands. I see you use Coreplast?! Could you tell me where you bought it?
Another question i have is which NodeMCU you are using. You mentioned you use one NodeMCU with an ESP32 chip? Can you tell me which one you bought? Do you also use only one controller for the tree?
thanks for you help!
I also live in the Netherlands, Zwolle. Ray whu is expensive for shipping. For pixels you can get it cheaper from other vendors on ali. Coro you can get from germany and 1 store in the Netherlands, use google for this. I bought the strips for pixelmounting in Eg a tree also from Ali, is still the cheapest.
Also I am struggling to get coro sheets in the Netherlands for a decent price anyway. Want it to cut myself or hire a cnc in a workshop, as for I can generate drawings and gcode myself but still no luck
The Coroplast is an 4’ x 8’ sheet of corrugated plastic from Home Depot:
As far as the controller goes, I’m using the bare esp32 (no NodeMCU or anything like that). I like to tinker and don’t mind soldering, so I saved a few bucks by just using the bare esp instead of buying a whole board to go with it.
What thickness of coroplast?
Says 0.157" in the specs, approx 5/32" or 4mm.
Yes, @divsys is right, .157". It is a bit thin and flimsy, but if it’s secured well it works fine.
You can also add a bunch of strength by tying in a piece of bamboo or fiberglass rod. You can find all kinds used for gardeninig that will weather well and are quite strong.
Just continuing on this same thread from last year…
Anybody building or setting up anything new/interesting this year? Care to share your ideas and post progress along the way?
As for me, I’m still trying to keep things mostly DIY as much as possible. Not trying to offend any of the prop companies (they are mostly great), but I get enjoyment out of building my own props if possible.
I’m thinking that I need to expand my display to the 2nd level of the house this year. I’m hoping to frame the upper 3 windows similar to the way I did the lower 4. There are a couple big roof spaces that I’m gonna try to fill with some large holly/bell coro props (haven’t made those yet). I’ve just finished building 3 new wireframe Christmas trees with stars on them. I’m gonna try to double or triple the amount of the pixel stakes so I can line the driveway and sidewalk.
One big open space I haven’t figured out yet though is the garage door. I have the outline already, but the door itself is a large blank canvas that I’d love to fill somehow. Anyone got any suggestions for the large garage door space?
Hello Docmattman. I was thinking exactly the same by continuing this thread for this year. My goal for this year was to finish the prop lines on my house. These are finished and ready for the holiday season. I am very happy with the result. The lines are controlled by three NodeMCU’s which are synched to each other. I used all kinds of materials from the local stores in the Netherlands. Links for examples are included below.
My next goal is to make an RGB Mega Tree. A huge challenge because i like to make everything myself for the lowest costs 
. First problem i faced is to make the plastic mounting strips. You can buy them online at Ali but the shipping costs are very high. I decided to make it myself and after looking in the local store i came up with the following solution. I bought 8 L-profiles and cut them in two and drilled holes every 7cm.
I know a lot of work but it worked and was much cheaper (i bought the profiles with discount 
) For the base of the tree i used a couple of old wooden piles. For the curve at the bottom to attach the strings to i used a plastic tube.
This weekend i finished the work and starting mounting the strings. I will try to finish the project next week. The tree has 720 lights in total and my plan is to control them with one esp32 with WLED. Then i have to focus on the software and the effects. Do you have any tips which effects to use?
How did you make the 3 new wireframe christmas trees? Could you post some pictures?
For the garage door you can make a LED matrix screen to project for example a timer, text or other figures?
Well done @madradrakie . It’s all looking great so far. Keep posting more pics as you build up your display!
Here are a couple pictures of my wireframe trees that I plan to put out this year. I’ve built 3 so far. Not sure if I’ll do any more than that for this year.
Got 2 of these built to add to my display this year:
I liked the holly/berries that I saw from one of the vendors, but I also wanted to have a couple of bells in there too. So I drew it out by hand on Coroplast and measured the spacing for all the pixels accordingly. Came out to be 208 pixels (WS2811) for each. I haven’t decided where I’ll put them yet, but that should be the quicker/easier part.
Still very much a work-in-progress, but here’s a snapshot of my current progress:
I’ve had less time than I hoped to make additions/improvements. At the very least, I still want to add the 2nd floor window outlines this year. I wanted to have something big an awesome on the garage door, but there doesn’t seem to be enough space for the door to open if I mount pixels to the front of it. I think if I mounted something, it would all just slide off when the door was opened.
I hope to continue to add as I go. I’ll post more photos as I make more progress.
Hello docmattman, the mega tree is finished I will send you a picture. Do you maybe have the file of the christmas bells you make.? I really like them so I would like to make them too. Could you also post a picture or file of the wiring (from the back?)
Thanks.
@madradrakie, are you looking for the xlights model file? If so, here it is:
This should allow you to see the wiring view inside xlights. If you’re looking for something else, let me know and I’d be happy to pass it along.
Thank you @docmattman. That is really helpfully. Did you made the bells with a computer model which you can send? Then i can print it and cut them out so i can draw them on the xps board i use to make the props.
I still propised to make some pictures of the mega tree and the props 
. The base of the mega tree is made by a pvc pipe (which bents a little bit because of the cold)
The props are selfmade with the material XPS (resistant to water and cold )
First year with WLED/xlights. Lots of time put in but I think it came out good. Just about 2k pixels.
View through front window to outdoors. Mini trees screwed to 3/4” plywood. Plywood rests on “milk crate”. Crate filled with sand. All thread runs from top of plywood to bottom of crate. 45 mph wind last night crates did not move, frozen to ground.
12” tall green cubes. Jewelry display case plastic cubes. Each cube sits on three 12v LEDs. Top pieces of walnut screwed on to make cubes removable to access 8266 controller, buck, wiring in bottom. External 12v battery pack. Cubes from Amazon. Box (small painter’s canvas) Hobby Lobby. LEDs had frosted dome from AliExpress.
